Podfather Earthworks net a contract with Taylor Woodrow
Podfather Earthworks has been deployed on Nottingham’s multi-million-pound extension of the city tram network (NET), with construction work being undertaken by Taylor Woodrow and Alstom. The NET extension will more than double the size of the tram network in Nottingham, adding 17.5km of new track and 28 new tram stops, providing service to approximately 28 million passengers a year.
The Taylor Woodrow team at NET contacted Podfather to quickly implement their electronic ticketing system for earthworks projects. Taylor Woodrow is the civil engineering arm of VINCI Construction UK, which is part of the VINCI Group, a world leader in construction.
Podfather Earthworks software has been purpose built for use in construction environments. The system produces unique conveyance tickets to comply with Duty of Care regulations for the transport of construction materials on a public highway and uses ultra-rugged handheld computers, mobile printers and barcode technology throughout the process to scan vehicles at the originating and tip sites to ensure both fraudulent movements and human errors are eliminated.
Tickets can be generated by drivers in-cab, or by an on-site ticket checker depending on project requirements, and all movements are reported in real time via a web-based system that permanently archives all tickets.
Within two weeks the Podfather system was ready to be deployed on the live project at NET with handheld systems positioned at numerous works locations.
Sarah Barnes, Environmental Adviser for Taylor Woodrow said, “NET is a complex project given it covers so many locations and all material needs to be transported from sites in a tight urban environment. The system is helping us ensure compliance with the handling of material and monitoring the vehicle safety standards of the hauliers working on our sites”.
Sarah continues, “the Podfather handheld system is very easy to use and because we control all the options on the handheld for completing the tickets centrally, we no longer have the problem of dealing with errors so commonly found on handwritten tickets.”
“We definitely recommend the system to other construction contractors as it gives immediate visibility of material movement activity across a site, massively reduces the back office administration tasks of dealing with handwritten tickets, and also helps ensure compliance with environmental and transport regulations.”
Colin McCreadie, Business Development Director of Podfather comments, “We are delighted Taylor Woodrow selected the Podfather system for this project at NET. We aim to provide solutions that prove best practice procedures are followed for the production and management of waste tickets on construction sites in real-time.”
